Capability management is the approach to the management of an organization, typically a business organization or firm, based on the "theory of the firm" as a collection of capabilities that may be exercised to earn revenues in the marketplace and compete with other firms in the industry. Capability management seeks to manage the stock of capabilities within the firm to ensure its position in the industry and its ongoing profitability and survival. Prior to the emergence of capability management, the dominant theory explaining the existence and competitive position of firms, based on Ricardian economics, was the resource-based view of the firm (RBVF). The fundamental thesis of this theory is that firms derive their profitability from their control of resources – and are in competition to secure control of resources. Perhaps the best-known exposition of the Resource-based View of the Firm is that of one of its key originators: economist Edith Penrose. "Capability management" may be regarded as both an extension and alternative to the RBVF that asserts that it is not control over physical resources that is the basis for firm profitability but that "Companies, like individuals, compete on the basis of their ability to create and utilize knowledge;...". In short, firms compete not on the basis of control of resources but on the basis of superior Know-How. This Know-How is embedded in the capabilities of the firm – its abilities to do things that are considered valuable (in and by the market). Types of business capability Dorothy Leonard defines three types of business capability that a firm might possess: Core Capabilities, Enabling Capabilities and Supplemental Capabilities. Core Capabilities are defined as those "built up over time", that "cannot be easily imitated" and therefore "constitute a competitive advantage for a firm". They are distinct from the other types of capability and sufficiently superior to similar capabilities in competitor organizations to provide a "sustainable competitive advantage". It is implied that such core capabilities are the product of sustained, long organizational learning. Supplemental Capabilities are defined as those that "add value to core capabilities but that could be imitated". Enabling Capabilities are defined as those that "are necessary but not sufficient in themselves to competitively distinguish a company." In other words, enabling capabilities are those which a firm has to do, in support of its normal operations and core capabilities, but which are not themselves core capabilities (because they could be imitated,